Breakdown-firearm



July27, 1937. G. s. LEWIS BREAKDOWN FIREARM Fig/(53210, 1935 Patented July 27, 1937 UNITED STATES PA ER BREAKDOWN-FIREARM Application July 10, 1935, Serial No. 30,599

1 Claim.

This invention relates to an improvement in breakdown-firearms, that is to say, that class of firearms in which a barrel-unit and a butt-unit are hinged together for relative pivotal movement.

More particularly, the present invention relates to the means by which the relative pivotal movement of the two firearm-units above referred to is limited in the direction of the breakdown or opening of the firearm.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a breakdown-firearm with superior means for checking the breakdown movement between the barreland butt-units thereof.

A further object is to provide a breakdownfirearm with simple, reliable and effective means for checking the relative pivotal movement between its two main movements in the direction of the breakdown or opening of the firearm.

With the above and other objects in View, as will appear to those skilled in the art from the following, considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing and appended claim, the present invention includes all features disclosed therein which are novel over the prior art.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. l is a View in side elevation of a breakdown-shotgun embodying the present invention, but with the forestook in vertical, central-lon- 3O gitudinal section, and showing the buttand barrel-units in their normal relative positions;

Fig. 2 is a broken view partly in side elevation and partly in vertical, central-longitudinal section, but showing the barrel-unit in its breakdown position;

Fig. 3 is a broken perspective view of the forward end of the frame;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of the forestockshoe; and

Fig. 5 is a broken perspective view of the rear portion of the forestock.

The particular breakdown-firearm herein chosen for illustration includes two major units pivoted together for relative pivotal movement. The rear unit of the firearm may, for convenience of description, be designated as the butt-unit, and comprises in the main a frame 2!] and a buttstock 2! rigidly secured to the said frame. The complementary front unit of the firearm, designated for convenience of description as the barrel-unit, comprises in the main a barrel 22 and a forestock 23 removably secured to the under-side of the said barrel.

The forward portion of the frame is of substantially U-shaped form in cross-section providing an upwardly-opening recess or pocket 2t receiving a rectangular barrel-coupling lug 25 forming a rigid feature of and depending from the under-side of the barrel 22 adjacent the rear end of the latter. The U-shaped forward portion of the frame 2B comprises complementary side-walls 25 and 27 (Fig. 3), a bottom-wall 28 and a relatively-short front-wall 29.

The forward edge of the barrel-coupling lug 25 is formed with a transverse forwardly-opening notch 38 the forwardly-facing semicircular wall of which engages and bears upon a fulcrumpin 3! extending transversely through the frame 29 and forming a fixed feature thereof. Substantially all of the rear half of the central portion of the fulcrum-pin 3! is located rearwardly of the front-wall 29 of the frame 26, as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

The forward end of the frame 28 is shaped to form a cylindrically-contoured bearing-surface 32 having its central axis coinciding with the central axis of the fulcrum-pin 3! before referred to.

Conforming in curvature to and normally bearing against the bearing-surface 32 of the frame 29 is a forestock-shoe, generally designated by the numeral 33. The forestock-shoe just referred to comprises a forwardly-extending tang 34 having a vertical threaded bore 35, a depending tongue 35 and complementary upstanding 0 side-prongs or cars 3l3'i, each of which latter terminates in a downwardly-and-rearwardly-extending hook-like stop-finger 38 providing a stopabutment 39. The respective rear surfaces of the tongue 36 and the side-prongs or ears 3'! merge together and are curved in a manner conforming to the cylindrically-contoured bearingsurface 32 at the forward end of the frame 29.

The upper surface of the forestock 23 is transversely shaped to conform to and snugly fit the bottom half of the barrel 22. The rear face of the said forestock 23 is milled or otherwise shaped to provide a vertically-curving recess 49 receiving the tongue 36 and the side-prongs 3'i3'i of the forestock-shoe 33, and resulting in the formation 1.

on the respective opposite sides of the said forestock, at the rear end thereof, of a pair of complementary ears Mti (Fig. 5) overlapping the adjacent side-surfaces of the frame 28 and partially covering the curved line on which the i curved rear face of the forestock-shoe 33 engages with the similarly-curved forward end of the frame 20.

The central portion of the transversely-curved upper-face of the forestock 23 is cut away to provide a longitudinal pocket or recess 42 receiving .the tang 34 of the forestock-shoe 33, before referred to. Secured to the under-face of the tang M of the forestock-shoe 33 is a forestock-retainer d3 engaging with a retaining-lug 44 depending from and forming a rigidfeature of the barrel 22 at a point forwardly of the barrel-coupling lug thereof.

The forestock-retainer 43, above referred to, is secured to the under-side of the tang 34 of the forestock-shoe 33 by means of a kerfed stud having a threaded shank 45 threaded into the bore 35 in the tang 3e. In its under-face, the stud $5 is provided with a threaded bore 66 and snugly fits within an upwardly-opening pocket t! formed in the upper-face of the forestock 23. Threaded into the bore MS of the stud 15 is the upper end of a coupling-screw 43 having its head seated in a shouldered bushing or escutcheon 49 which, in turn, is mounted in the forestock 23.

As thus constructed and arranged, the stud d5 notonly serves'to bind the forestock-retainer 3 to the forestook-shce 33, but also serves in conjunction with the coupling-screw $8 to secure the said forestock-shoe and forestoclr-retainer to'the forestock 23 itself. From the foregoing, it will be apparent that the forestock 23 and its associated parts are firmly but releasably secured to the under-side of the barrel 22.

The barrel-unit comprising in the main the parts 22 and 23 may be detached onseparated from the butt-unit comprising in the main the parts 26 and 2 l, by first prying the forestock-unit loose from the under-side of the barrel 22. The detachment of the forestock-unit may be effected by drawing downwardly upon the same to disengage the forestock-retainer 53 from the retaining-lug Q4. 7 After the forestock-unit has been detached from the barrel 22, as just above described, the said barrel, after first being tilted downwardly into the position in which it is shown in Fig.2, may be moved relatively rearwardly with respect to the frame 29 to thereby disengage the semicircular notch 3b of its lug 25 from the fulcrumpin 3!, and thus permit the complete separation of the barrel-unit from the butt-unit.

The complementary opposite side-walls: 28 and 21 of the frame 28 are respectively notched as at and 5! to provide each of the said side-walls with a rearwardly-and-upwardly-faoing stopabutment 52. The said notches 56 and. 5| respectively receive the stop-fingers 38,38 of the forestock-shoe 33.

When the firearm is broken down or opened by tilting the barrel-unit downwardly with respect to the butt-unit, so that the parts are moved from the position in which they are shown in Fig. 1 to the position in which they are shown in Fig. 2, the stop-abutments (W of the stop-fingers 3838 will engage respectively with the stop-abutments 5252 of the notches 5B and 5E, thus serving to effectively limit the breakdown movement of the firearm-units with respect to each other.

As thus constructed and arranged, the breakdown movement of the firearm-units is limited in a simple, reliable and effective manner and at a low cost for manufacture, by providing one or more stop-abutments upon the forestock-shoe as herein shown and described. The coaction of the stop -abutments 39-3 with the stop-abutments 52-52 serve to prevent the under-surface of the barrel 22 from striking the upper-surface of the front-Wall 2% of the frame 23 and thus prevent the said barrel from possible distortion.

The invention may be carried out in other specific ways than that herein set forth without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the invention, and the present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claim are intended to be embraced therein.

I claim:

A breakdown-firearm including in combination: a butt-unit including a buttstock and a frame, the said frame having a forward portion of U-shaped form in cross-section and having spaced-apart side walls, each of the said side walls being notched to provide a stop-abutment; and a barrel-unit pivoted to the frame of the said butt-unit and having a forestock and a forestockshoe carried by the said forestock, the said forestock-shoe being provided on each of its respective opposite sides with a stop-finger entered into the notches in the side Walls of the said frame and engaging with the stop-abutments thereof to limit the relative movement of the two said units when the same are moved into their breakdown positions.

GEORGE S. LEWIS. 

